How to place a property Under contract?

The difference is an offer is what you are telling the seller you would pay for the property. A contract is when the sellers have accepted your offer to buy and a contract to purchase has been signed.

Thank you Maria so if my offer is accepted then I just place that property under contract?

This somewhat varies from state. In some states, one submits an "Offer to Purchase," document to the seller or their agent (called a sellers agent, often a realtor). In other states, one actually submits a sales contract of some sort, and that is the offer. If the contract is accepted, it is executed (signed by the seller), and real estate agents and title companies take the process from there as far as actually closing the deal.

This is a common question we get all the time. The previous 2 posts did a great job answering this, but allow me to give just a little more insight.

Offer-
An offer is submitted to a seller letting them know you are interested in the property, how much you are willing to pay for the property and any other contingencies/requests you are making.

Counter Offer-
This is returned to you with the contingencies or requests of the seller to your original offer.

Contract-
Once all counter offer contingencies/requests are agreed upon by both the seller and yourself, and both parties have signed off on all of them, you are now under contract.
Go get em!

I am new to investing and still have questions that stop me from moving forward:

When is the right time for me as an investor to write in contingencies? Is it as the offer is placed? or once the contract has been prepared and ready to sign?

What are the contingency wordings you would recommend as an exit strategy if needed?

An offer is what you are willing to offer to purchase their property.
This includes things such as price, earnest money, terms, closing date etc. The owner will either Accept, Reject or counter you're offer.
A offer is a written contract, just missing the sellers signature basically.
If they accept you're offer, Then at that point they have agreed to you're price and terms in the purchase & You both now are at an agreement to follow through with the purchase.

I have a few prospective single family homes in mind and I am getting ready to submit my first offers, BUT, I need to know for sure which contract(s) to use in order to "lock up" a property once my offer is accepted. Do I just modify the "Purchase and Sale Agreement"? I already have a list of motivated buyers ready for deals, and I would really appreciate any help on this, considering the fact that I have to get it "locked up" before I can move any further. I'm dying to get started, but I really need some help on this one.

Thanks,
Eric Fontaine

Thank you guys